Scarier Than Halloween

[274 words]

One person had a dream about hell. She said,

There was nothing but desolation and hopelessness. You walk toward the gates of hell knowing that you will never again be free. I got to the gate and the keeper said, “Hold it.” I stood outside hell, and I saw people whose faces were twisted and tongues were thick, eyes bulging and hands split—dropping blood. I said, “Sir, please let some air in.” And he said, “No air in hell.” Then I said, “Kind sir, let them have a drink of water.” And he said, “No water in hell.” Then I said, “If that’s true, let ’em die.” And he said, “No death in hell.” She said, “How long will they suffer?” And he said, “Forever and ever! Hell has no exit and there is no death.”

Luke, a physician (Colossians 4:14), is the only one who included Jesus’ teaching on the rich man in Hades (Luke 16:19– 31). As a doctor at that time of limited knowledge and anesthetics, he had seen pain. Notice these descriptions of hell, pointing to the fact that it is a place of unrelieved pain:

Gnashing of teeth. The phrase “gnashing of teeth” is used of hell more often than any other besides fire (7 times: Matthew 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28). Thayer says “gnashing” (brugmos) is “used to denote extreme anguish and utter despair of men consigned to eternal punishment in hell; snarling, growling: in the sense of biting.”

Tormented day and night forever and ever (Revelation 20:10; 14:10–11).